Monday, October 10, 2011

Dr. William Lane Criag on Mormonism

7:20 PM  Answering Mormons  6 comments

World renowned, and leading Christian Apologist Dr. William Lane Craig answers, "Is Mormonism a Cult?" on his latest audio blog series. William Lane Craig is Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. He and his wife Jan have two grown children. Dr. Craig is also author of several books, including, "The New Mormon Challenge" which is a philosophical apologetic refutation of Mormonism.

Listen in as Dr. Craig explains why Mormonism is NOT another denomination of Biblical Christianity, and is theologically an absolute cult.

Click HERE for the MP3 audio, which was found at Dr. Craig's site HERE.

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6 comments:

I feel very sad that you are so lost. I also find it sad that you do so much more 'research' on why the LDS beliefs are 'wrong' rather than simply living your life as you believe you should. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. I have received confirmation that it is true, that every aspect of the LDS church is true. Joseph Smith was a true prophet and all prophets that have succeeded him have been and are true prophets of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that the Bible is true as far as it is translated correctly. I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers, whether you are LDS or not. I know that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that through His Atonement and resurrection we have the ability to return to our Heavenly Father. I won't use any more of my time to read anything on this blog, but I know that if you truly read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, do all that you can to learn about the LDS church and believe that Heavenly Father will answer your prayers then you, too, will know the truth of the Gospel. If we based our faith on logic it wouldn't be faith would it? Faith is believing in something that you cannot see or feel. I wish you all the best and pray that you may find the peace and happiness that comes with the truth and light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hi Stacie, I appreciate your taking the time to both visit my blog, and to leave me a comment. I would like just briefly reply to you on some of what you had said.

First, I want you to know the reason that I run this blog, and take the time and effort to research the doctrines of Mormonism. My family was at one time Mormon, until someone took the time and effort to speak to my folks in love, with the truth, about who Christ really is, what Mormonism really teaches, and explained to them the importance of placing their faith in not just any Jesus, but the living Son of God.

I have spent the better part of over a decade researching and understanding Mormonism, in an effort to reach out to others with the truth of the Bible, and help them leave the Mormon church behind, for a true saving relationship in the Jesus of the Bible, which I myself have, so I promise I am not lost, as I have placed my faith firmly in Jesus Christ, and am saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Not through a prophet, a church organization, not through temple ordinances, temple marriage, or temple works.

That being said, please know I mean no disrespect by this, but the typical response I get when a member of the LDS Church reads my material is they will then bear me their testimony as their confirmation of their knowing just how true the church is. While I do not discount your testimony, it is based on subjective feelings, rather than objective truth.

What do I mean by this? Well, I have read the Book of Mormon, and the rest of the Mormon doctrines, both official and unofficial and have come away saddened, sick, and with a longing for God to use me to witness to as many Mormons as I can to help them come out of this false organization. Now, if we base everything on feelings and testimony, why is your testimony true and mine is false, when supposedly the same spirit spoke to both our hearts? I believe Joseph Smith to be a false prophet which I can prove, the Book of Mormon to be error filled and false, which I also can prove, and that "Heavenly Father" from the Book of Mormon and the God of the Bible are not one in the same, which I can also prove. And I believe this with my heart, but I do not just express this belief, I use both logic and reason to show why. Both of which are gifts from God.

You said, " If we based our faith on logic it wouldn't be faith would it? Faith is believing in something that you cannot see or feel."

This response is actually wrong. You see, what I believe in my heart, must also make sense in my head. If I believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, but I find concrete evidence that is bullet proof that He was NOT raised from the dead, than I have a very large problem that must be reconciled. While we do take things on faith, we are never told in the Bible to bury our head in the sand, and take things blindly. In contrast, we are commanded to "test all things". The beauty of Christianity is that the more I test it, the more my faith is grown due to the overwhelming amount of confirmation available! Be it the reliability of the Bible, evidence from science, or archaeology, I walk away astounded by the truth of God Himself.

So to say that faith cannot be based on logic is actually a false dichotomy, we base our faith on Christ BECAUSE we use logic, reason, and can use our God given faculties to see that the proclamation of the Gospel is true.

What I would challenge you to do is this, realize that you never actually provided an argument against what you heard from Dr. Craig, rather just an emotional appeal. While you may be passionate in your disagreement, you don't have a case, or an argument...you basically did not bring a "dog to this fight".

So I would challenge you, what do you disagree with? Why? Did Dr. Craig violate any laws of logic? Claim false teachings of Mormon beliefs? Or was he right? I would challenge you to pick up the Bible, and keep searching. This blog has many useful resources that are ALL FREE! Use them, research, and feel free to write me any time.

Good luck,

Jamie

The relationship between faith and reason is often misunderstood by both believer and anti-theist alike. Please enjoy my discussions of such below:
http://www.wholereason.com/2007/02/the-weslyan-quadrangle-iii-scripture-and-reason.html
http://www.wholereason.com/2007/09/faith-and-reason-link-dump.html
http://www.wholereason.com/2011/04/pascals-wager-part-ii-debunking-the-all-religions-are-equally-improbable-ruse.html
http://www.wholereason.com/2009/02/pascals-wager-part-iii-evaluating-the-gods.html
http://www.wholereason.com/2009/12/are-you-a-christian-because-of-your-experiences-or-because-of-logic.html

Just found your site through a search on Google, I probably wont find it again but felt the need to support Stacie since she is alone here.

While I believe you are doing what you feel is right I feel your time, focus and attention is a little misguided.

By all means pray, search the scriptures and follow your heart but trying to strong arm another Christian(yes we do consider ourselves Christian even if the world doesn't)into following your particular interpretation of Christianity is not Christ-like!

I could argue other Christians are not Christians because they believe in the Holy Trinity which the early Christians were divided over. The Trinity is a man made belief and is NOT supported by the bible, see:

http://truetruthseeker.hubpages.com/hub/Trinity-a-Fallacy-Not-Supported-by-the-Bible

Our Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are central to our belief. We worship, love and aspire to be more Christ-like throughout our lives. I see no reason why any LDS member should justify his/her beliefs to you or anyone for that matter.

We accept Jesus Christ as our saviour and through his saving grace AND good works we believe we can be saved like all of Gods children.

Brother Jamie, I respect your current position and your attempts to correct what you feel to be incorrect in our beliefs and doctrinal interpretation. However, as a Latter Day Saint we belong to Christs restored gospel. Asking us to leave our church for another would be a downgrade in our eyes.

I am sure we can both agree to the divine nature of God, his love, compassion,intelligence and ability to know and understand what is in our hearts. I believe we will be judged on our faith, our understanding and our love toward our fellow man.

In this day and age with the new atheists attacking our basic beliefs and leading so many away from God - we no longer have the luxury of arguing over differences in doctrinal interpretations.

Oh and I must say, Dr William Lane Craig is awesome and I am glad he is fighting on our side against the new Atheists. We need more men like him standing up for God and our beliefs (regardless of the differences of interpretation)...

God bless you my friend...

>> Our Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are central to our belief...We accept Jesus Christ as our saviour and through his saving grace AND good works we believe we can be saved like all of Gods children.

The reason that Mormon doctrine is anathema to the gospel and deceptive is that hidden in the phrase 'and good works' is the mormon's way of saying that good works are part of earning and meriting salvation, rather than merely providing evidence of salvation, and earning rewards OTHER than salvation from wrath.

This is no trivial difference, but rather, makes the difference between the work of Christ and the arrogance of men thinking that they merit it.

And regardless of what Mormon apologists say their doctrine IS, most often, their direct teachings and practice are a works based gospel, which Paul said is accursed and anti-Christ.

Look, I have Mormon relatives whom I love. They are nice, good, people. They might even have saving faith - that is, through grace alone. In fact, there are probably genuine regenerated (you MUST be born again) Christians in many organizations that are not entirely orthodox, including Catholic, JW's, and Mormon churches. But most of these people are Christian DESPITE the teachings of their churches because in those organizations, the gospel is hidden by the aberrant teachings of their leaders.

Many more Christians exist in churches where the gospel is not clouded by doctrines of praying to saints, baptisms for the dead, works mentalities, and other twisting of scripture.

In addition, in churches that deny the deity of Christ (and the trinity), there is typically the sister heresies of works-based salvation and salvation exclusively through the organization.

I'm glad you think others outside of Mormonism are saved. I wonder if you believe that they are in the servants' quarters in heaven, or the same proximity to Jesus (who will be worshipped in eternity, which sounds pretty funny if he is not God). I also wonder if you think that they will have harmes and their own planets too.

Such teachings are not Christian. You may be truly born again and placing faith in the death of Jesus, but most Mormons are not - in my experience, they are earning rank in both the Church and heaven, earning salvation, and know very little about the Bible, but plenty about the polygamous wretches that began their organization.

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